January 2016 Picks

Welcome to the January update of Plan 5 Picks. We’ll start with the Plan 5 Monthly results for December:

Plan 5 Monthly: December 2015 Results

Dec 1 Open

Dec 31 Close

% Change

Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

37.86

38.71

+2.25%

Amazon.com (AMZN)

673.75

675.89

+0.32%

Netflix (NFLX)

124.47

114.38

-8.11%

Nuance Communications (NUAN)

21.01

19.89

-5.33%

Pegasystems (PEGA)

29.62

27.50

-7.16%

Plan 5 Monthly: December 2015

-3.61%

S&P 500

2082.93

2043.94

-1.87%

Two of this month’s picks showed a modest gain, but that was more than balanced out by the others, most especially Netflix’s 8.11% drop, and Pegasystems’ 7.16% slide. The overall loss of 3.61% was further than the S&P 500’s 1.87% loss.

There are two substitutions this month, with Nuance Communications and Pegasystems being replaced by NVIDIA and SINA. Here are the January 2016 Plan 5 Monthly picks:

Plan 5 Monthly: January 2016 Picks

Company

Symbol

Activision Blizzard

ATVI

Amazon.com

AMZN

NVIDIA

NVDA

Netflix

NFLX

SINA

SINA

If you’re following along with Plan 5 Monthly, you’ll want to rebalance your portfolio at this point. You can find a refresher on how to do that right here. Or, even easier, you can try out the Balance Calculator tool that will do the math for you.

If instead you’re following Plan 5 Quarterly, it’s not time to make any trades this month, but let’s take a look at how the current picks are doing two months in. Here are the results so far:

Plan 5 Quarterly: November-December 2015 Progress Report

Nov 2 Open

Dec 31 Close

% Change

Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

34.25

38.71

+13.02%

Amazon.com (AMZN)

627.13

675.89

+7.78%

Netflix (NFLX)

109.20

114.38

+4.74%

Pegasystems (PEGA)

27.84

27.50

-1.22%

Xoom (XOOM)

24.92

25.00

+0.32%

Plan 5 Quarterly: Nov-Dec 2015

4.93%

S&P 500

2080.76

2043.94

-1.77%

Plan 5 Quarterly is so far doing pretty well this quarter, with its 4.93% gain easily beating the S&P 500’s 1.77% loss. Four out of five picks have showed a gain so far. Xoom, which completed its purchase by PayPal in November, locked in its small 0.32% gain by finishing at a value of $25 per share. We’re not done yet though; there’s one more month to go until the current Plan 5 Quarterly period will be over, and it will be time for a new set of picks.

Finally, here’s a look at Plan 5’s overall progress from the beginning:

That’s all for this month. I’ll be back at the end of January with the next update.